San Carlos is the best spot in the world to have your first go at the waves. The offshore winds give you tons of power while you are riding down the wave, unlike Maui or the California coast where once you turn down the line the power drops off. This means that you do not have to rely on (or have any) surfing skills. All you need to know is how to sheet in and fly downwind!!

Not to mention the wave just crumbles at the top so it does not destroy you like a pitching Maui wave. You can be sitting in the water with a logo high wave coming to crush you, but instead it just picks you up and rolls right past you without the rinse cycle.

On the other hand down at the Chili Bowl section the wave, bowls up and offers a strong lip for powerful aerials.

AAAAhhhhh I'm drooling already and I just sailed 4.2 in the Gorge today.

San Carlos is heaven for windsurfers.

So if you have never been to Punta San Carlos or if you want to go again and really push yourself, sign up for my clinic October 17th-24. I promise you will have a blast and take some new tricks home to show the local crew.

Come Join Pro Sailor Wyatt Miller with Solo Sports for a wave and freestyle clinic. Learn the basics of wave riding or fine tune your top turn, while learning some freestyle skills to take home and impress your local crowd. Wyatt had his first San Carlos session at the age of 16 and has been coming back every year since. "PSC is like a skate park for windsurfers, you could not have designed it any better." (Wyatt Miller)

Last edited by wyattmiller on Wed Jul 01, 2009 12:26 am; edited 1 time in total

There are not any motels. The only support is from Solo Sports if you sign up for one of their week packages, that includes transportation from San Diego to PSC. Otherwise, you must bring everything you need (including water). The nearest town is over 3 hours away.

Hey Dave,
Ya the clinic is only offered through SoloSports.net which is the only way to go. They pick you up at the San Diego airport, then you either take their van on the 6 hour ride down or you hop in one of their small planes and get there in 2 hours. Flying down you also get an extra day or two of sailing.

Solosports provides windsurf gear, SUP boards, Mountain bikes for the awesome single track trails. They give you a big tent on the plush carpet, all your awesome meals are cooked and you get full access to the open bar. Not to mention that they have an incredible windless (which is great after day 2) movie room and pool table. All this in the middle of no where with no electricity other than their wind and solar powered battery system.
Ohhh ya and you get to take showers which is impossible if you go on your own because you need to bring all your own water.

Solosports is definitely the way to experience San Carlos, especially for the first time so you can get an idea of what you will need for your next drive down trip.

As of late it looks like we are turning this into a clinic with the Naish Crew.

Team and Product Manager (not to mention wave sailing and SUP expert)
Michi Schweiger will be helping out with the clinic along with wonder kid
Bernd Roediger. These two will be flying in from Maui and giving us extra instruction on and off the water.

I was thinking that this would be a great thread to post San Carlos stories from all you PSC Veterans......

I was also wondering if there are any fellow CLIFF JUMPERS out there......check story below......

How Not to fall off the cliff at San Carlos – Go with Wyatt Miller &SOLO

I’ve done it already.

My first trip to Solosports was in 1998, when I was but 16 years young. My dad and I followed our good friend and San Carlos veteran Jay Conners down to PSC.
After winding our way down Mex 1 we hit the turnoff to the dirt road to Punta San Carlos just before dusk. After a coupe hours of bouncing down the gravel road Jay pulls to a stop next to a well lit camp and we follow suit. I hopped out of the car so stoked to be at the legendary spot I had head about time and time again. It was a dark and moonless night but I could hear the sound of good sized waves breaking and the clippity clop of the big cobble stones rolling in the surge. As my dad and Jay walked over to talk to the folks at the flood lit camp, I tried to peer into the darkness and catch a glimpse of the waves. With the light from the camp it was hard to make out anything but the glistening whitewater. After straining my eyes for a moment, I decided that I could probably see the waves better if I stepped out of the light from the camp………BAD DECISION……..the line that I thought was the end of the camp flood light was actually the edge of the 15-20 ft cliff. With one leg I stepped strait over the edge, my back thigh catching on the edge of the cliff as I plunged head first into the darkness!!!
When I came to on the cobbles at the bottom of the cliff I knew I was pretty messed up, but somehow I managed to find a way up the cliff. As I walked into the camp where my dad and Jay were talking, everyone turned in horror as they saw my dusty and bloody figure appear out of the darkness. I managed to groan “I am pretty %$&* ‘ed up.”
They laid me down on a boardbag with the headlights of our suburban pouring over me. They simultaneously checked my body for broken bones while pouring tequila down my throat right from the bottle. Amazingly I escaped with no broken bones, my face was pretty cut up on one side, while the tips of my fingers had been popped like grapes from a finger first landing. With no life threatening injuries the decision was made to stay.
The next day we woke to epic San Carlos conditions, wind and waves galore. Unfortunately my finger injuries kept me off the water that day, while I devised a duck tape glove. I would wrap each finger completely tying them into a palm wrap that was then tied into a wrist wrap. Effectively a duck tape claw.
With the claw in full effect and my face greased up with Neosporin I had the best week of sailing of my life. Epic 4.2-5.0 winds and a great southswell delivered the true San Carlos experience 7 days strait. I made more bottom turns on my first wave than I had ever had in a full day sailing the California Coast. Not to mention the offshore winds provided a full powered sail when flying down the line, which I had never experienced at any other location. The ability to outrun whitewater and make it to the next wave section was amazing. I could not believe how easy and fun wave sailing was at San Carlos. I was hooked. (And I had not even experienced the luxury and killer food that a trip with SOLOSPORTS includes.)
Rumor of my mishap with the cliff spread through camp quickly and I was dubbed the “Cliff Jumper”. After a couple of days I would be sitting in my camp chair with my claw and my scarred up face, when some of the little kids in camp would sneek up behind me and I could hear them whispering to one another “That’s the cliff jumper right there, my mommy said he fell off the cliff and that’s why we are not supposed to play near it.”

Since that first trip I have been to San Carlos more times than I can count
each time more fun than the last..

As this is a discussion forum and not an advertising forum a couple of pointers.

PSC is a great place to go when on, and a real bore if there are no waves.

Best call is to watch the swell forecast and just plan a window to travel over a month period, I'd be pretty pissed spending $2K to get skunked.

I generally drive down for solitude and have never run into an issue, but don't drive down in a Lexus SUV with gold everywhere, or in Baja terms rob me!

I found the easiest way to cross in middle of the day and stay just south of San Quentin at or near the old La Pinta, now Desert Inn. There is a terrific dive bar just a little further down the road, one of my Baja favorites.

The drive to south of San Quentin usually takes about 4 - 5 hrs including an easy stop at the border to get the tourist pass.

From San Quentin to El Rosario and last gas is only about one hour. Stop at Mama Espinosa's for a lobster burrito, money goes to the orphanage, great spending.

After the gas station there is a little store to stock up, ice, if you aren't carrying dry ice.

Another 35 mins and you'll hit the famous sign for the 2 - 3 hrs down the dirt road. Good idea to put a womans stocking over the air intake to stop the Baja dust.

Depending on space bring either a long board or fat boy fish to surf in case the wind dies on you, have had epic solo surf sessions.

Make sure your vehicle is in good shape, you carry enough water and provisions to keep you supplied for your time at PSC.

I disagree with the just get on a wave statement and sheet in. Wave sailors, most who also surf don't take fools lightly, especially as it can cause danger and injury with the force of a wave pushing you.

Take a little time and hook up with some surfing friends and learn the flow of the waves and especially the rights of way. Just because you get on a wave doesn't make it yours.

Having an idea of what to do and what not to do will make it a great experience for you and avoid nasty confrontations with others.

A couple of other pointers, you are in a foreign country and attempting to speak the language will earn you respect, however badly. When you stop at the checkpoint don't keep you sunglasses on and make sure to be formal and polite, good morning or good afternoon. If you smoke weed don't take it North unless you wish to learn Spanish in prison, or south for that matter.

It is a really fun drive down if you like an adventure, if your idea of a great vacation is the Hyatt and rigged gear it isn't for you.

Epinrose is right San Carlos is a blast if you drive down with some friends. I have done it many times.

For a lot of people this is not very realistic, especially for the first time. If you don't live on the West Coast driving cross country and then down the Baja peninsula can be hard on the odometer.

Going down for a Solosports clinics means you get the instruction and support to help you excel in the conditions and provide the toys food and beer and wind sheltered space to fully relax or party yourself into oblivion one Baja Fog (beer with tequila topper) after another.

If you are going to go by yourself and you are not a Baja veteran I strongly recommend driving down with someone who had been there before and knows what to bring/expect. It may save you a short fall down a long cliff.

PSC certainly beats all the sailing places I have visited in Hawaii, S.Africa, Europe, Gorge, etc. and I will not repeat what so many have described so eloquently. (It never fails to amaze me how most San Diego sailors would rather drive up to Lake Lopez, L. Isabella, SF Bay, etc than cross the border just 20 milies south. But I have giving up trying to figure that one out. BTW the kiters have no such qualms; San Quintin is their mecca.)

Having driven and flown down to PSC every few months since 1985, I have some comments. (About falling down the bluff... I saved the life of a 3-wheeler, Matt, who drove off a cliff, drunk as a coot, in 2001. Had to takeoff in the darkness lit by the headlights of 8 sailor's cars -- provided a little night entertainment. With the truck bed, a PSC emergency ambulance, awash in Matt's blood, US ER docs said it was unlikely he would have survived til the morn. But I won't bore you. If you see a plane there, don't resent him -- he could save your life, or at least an excrutiating drive with a broken something.)
--- You will surely have a sailing vacation to beat any you have ever had. But don't ever think shit can't happen to you. Murphy is alive and well, and living at PSC.

Comments:

* About 90% of the sailors driving the 40 dirt miles from the asphalt Rte 1, view themselves as Baja 500/1000 contestants. Many brag about how fast they sailed over the ruts and their stunning times. I forget how many times I have been stopped by folks with vehicles stopped with a broken something (I had a wheel-bearing slide off my Trooper axle, and lost count of ripped tires -- and I will challenge anyone to drive SLOWER than me).
--- Is that 30 mins or hour you save worth risking your whole vacation? There is no road service and the best is a beat up old flatbed out of El Rosario, about 80 miles away. If nothing else, think of the 100s of $ it will cost you. Just changing a tire in the dust will wipe out any time saving... with interest. Trust me, it is no fun.
--- My advice: Make sure your tires are good (and check the spare, 2 are better). Buy a cig lighter airpump. Stop off the hardtop. Take a leak while the tires cool. Let down your tires to 25 lbs (less has blown out my sidewalls). Then enjoy the spectacular scenery, bragging about how long it took you. Pump the tires back up to 35, or whatever, at the Rte 1 on the way back.
Note: not only does that save $100s in tire/suspension repair, it makes a gruelling ride far more comfortable.

* WEAR A HARD HAT. (Only hard heads don't need a hard hat) I lost a tooth in a close encounter with a boom. Lost count of how many times I tumbled in a even a small wave with the rig, whacking my nut on the board over and over). Having just suffered an (unrelated) brain incident, take it from me, that the 3 lbs of jello atop your neck is the most life altering mass in your body. You can break any bone, rip your guts, etc but lose the use of even a teaspoon of that jello and the end of your sailing career is likely the least of your problems. Just being able to walk, use your hands/legs and comprehend what is going on around you could be a memory for those who love you. If you are too obstinate to think of yourself, at least think of those who will have to take care of you. The US may tout the finest health care in the world, but unless you have steelclad insurance, it is likely you will have to sell off your quiver not to mention just about everything else you own.
--- Is it worth the feeling of the breeze in your hair?

Ohhhh dude, the guy who drove the ATV off the cliff, I had always heard that rumor but wow first hand from the guy who saved his ass...nice.

I always take great comfort in knowing that there is a plane parked on the runway down in PSC. Not to mention it is always one of the highlights of the trip to see the planes land and take off on the bluff. Waving at the low fliers when you are ripping down the line is also a trip when you can see them waving back at you.

And letting your tire pressure down to soften the rattling of the engine is also a great idea. I am definitely one of the crowd who drives too fast on the way in it is always soooooo hard to hold down the excitement. But after droppin the whole exhaust system on my van to replace the front end stopper arm bushings with a Kryptonite skateboard wheel (that just happened to be available and the perfect size), I think i need to take it a little easier on the road in this time before my van divorces me!!!!!

Letting the tire pressure down is brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is exactly the kind of info I wanted to find out on this forum. I had always let the pressure out when driving in sand or stuck in the mud but just to lessen the impact on the gravel road.....Duh I should have thought of that.

Anybody got any more ways to make the ride in smoother. I was thinking of installing some spacers/shock absorbing pads for my front end suspension springs.

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